It's probably gone unnoticed over time but in the eleven years Melbourne has been around they've built a fantastic rivalry with the Bulldogs - some CLASSIC games over the last eleven years. I've gone through and grabbed a handful that I'll always remember, both wins and losses.
1998: Bulldogs 8 Melbourne Storm 4 @ Belmore Sports Ground
Round 23 - Wet and Wild
Canterbury pushed closer to a place in the top ten with a dramatic 8-4 victory over Melbourne in diabolical weather conditions at Belmore Sports Ground. Torrential rain greeted players for the kick-off, and the downpour continued virtually unabated for the entire 80 minutes. The playing surface was covered in sheets of water, and players carrying the football shielded their eyes from the rain with one hand and clung to the football with the other.
The match featured a Canterbury side aiming to win its third consecutive sudden-death clash en route to the finals, and a Melbourne outfit aiming for a top-two finish. Adding to the drama was the powerful connection between the Melbourne and Canterbury clubs Melbourne coach Chris Anderson was the coach of the Bulldogs club leading up to the 1998 season for eight previous years, guiding them to two Grand Finals including one premiership during his tenure, while at Canterbury his brother-in-law Steve Folkes became his successor. The pairs father in law Peter Moore was a virtual godfather figure before being supposedly forced out of the club for steering would-be Bulldog recruits Brett Kimmorley and Scott Hill toward the Storm.
With a crowd of 11,479 on hand, players from both sides battled to acclimatise to the big wet in the first half, and scoring opportunities were at a premium. The only points for the period went to the boot of Bulldogs winger Daryl Halligan, who potted a penalty goal in the 27th minute.
It took until the 63rd minute for a try to be scored. It came when Bulldogs five-eighth Craig Polla-Mounter grubber-kicked through ten metres from the tryline. The ball stopped dead in a puddle, short of Storm fullback Robbie Ross, allowing Polla-Mounter to scoop up the ball and slide almost five metres to score. Halligan converted for 8-0 and despite a late try to Storm captain Tawera Nikau, Canterbury held on for a remarkable victory. Polla-Mounter later described the conditions as the worst hed played in through his 137 first-grade appearances.
Excerpt from Rugby League 1999 by David Middleton, P149
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ7nvvOUHHQ see Pollys final minute try here.
1999: Melbourne Storm 24 Bulldogs 22 @ Sydney Football Stadium
The move of Matt Geyer to five-eighth and the inclusion of the forgotten Craig Smith on the wing for his goal kicking changed the whole complexion of the side for their semi-final match up against 1998 grand finalist Canterbury.
A gritty come-from-behind win over the Bulldogs when Geyer raced 90 metres to score with 11 minutes left, lifted the Storm to a 24-22 win and their season was alive.
The match was marked by Bulldogs halfback Ricky Stuarts unusually poor kicking game which gifted Melbourne a number of tries.
http://www.melbournestorm.com.au/default.aspx?s=1999-premiership
2003/4: Bulldogs 43 Melbourne Storm 18 and Bulldogs 30 Melbourne Storm 0 @ Sydney Football Stadium
Melbourne was held tryless for the first time in the club's history when it was eliminated from the National Rugby League finals by Canterbury yesterday, falling in such hapless fashion that coach Craig Bellamy said the gloss had been stripped from the Storm's courageous season.
Fortune and faculty deserted the Storm in equal measure throughout the sudden-death semi-final at Aussie Stadium, and the Bulldogs took advantage, scoring a 30-0 victory to earn a preliminary final date with reigning premiers the Roosters on Saturday night.
In the other preliminary final, the Warriors will play minor premier Penrith on Sunday after beating the Raiders on Saturday.
Until yesterday, the Storm had scored a try in each of its 157 matches since entering the league in 1998.
A bitterly disappointed Bellamy complained that his players appeared to have learned little from their 50-4 defeat by the Bulldogs in round 22, betraying the "keep it simple" ethos that had lifted them above the struggles of their injury-ravaged season.
As much as the Storm was disadvantaged at least three times by questionable first-half decisions from referee Bill Harrigan - each of which culminated in points to the Dogs - the occasion appeared to get the better of MelbourneAnd although 20-year-old Storm full-back Billy Slater - the NRL's clear-cut rookie of the year - had a match that will haunt him throughout the warmer months, Bellamy and captain Steve Kearney said Melbourne's senior men were no less culpable than the side's battalion of young players.
In the face of a brutal, disciplined Bulldogs defence, the Storm lacked patience with the ball, repeatedly surrendering possession by pushing the pass early in the tackle count. Kearney said that against such quality opposition, the practice was "a recipe for disaster".
Disaster unfolded slowly, and at first the Storm was mostly unlucky. In the ninth minute, Harrigan pinged hooker Cameron Smith for a forward pass to Kirk Reynoldson that was line-ball at best, and two sets later the Bulldogs found numbers to the right for centre Nigel Vagana to cross.
Five minutes later, Storm centre Steven Bell beat six defenders in a stunning 40-metre burst before Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri held him up over the line with a tackle described by his captain, Steve Price, as "freakish".
Two tackles later, forward Peter Robinson, one of the Storm's best players yesterday, ran off a ball from half-back Matt Orford and was held up over the tryline. Robinson was held up over the line again minutes later after burrowing from dummy half. Still the Dogs led 4-0.
"If we could have scored then, I'm sure we would have been a bit more competitive," Bellamy said, although he conceded it would not have changed the result.
Soon after Storm's unfulfilled surge, Harrigan nabbed Orford for a forward pass to Danny Williams that, like the first one, Bellamy thought questionable, and the Bulldogs promptly kicked a penalty goal. At the next kick-off, Harrigan found Orford was in front of the kicker - again a dubious call - and the Bulldogs scored when Corey Hughes ran onto what looked a forward pass from Travis Norton.
Bulldogs five-eighth Braith Anasta kicked the first of his two field goals for a 13-0 half-time lead, but the Storm was still in the match.
The second half, though, produced three more Bulldogs tries and nothing but despair for Melbourne. The Storm may have been unlucky when Robinson was denied a try for being in front of the kicker with his side trailing 19-0, but there was little to suggest the momentum would have shifted.
Despite his disappointment, Bellamy indicated he would have been satisfied earlier in the year with simply making a semi-final after losing Rodney Howe and Robbie Ross for the season.
He said that although his players "deserved to finish on a lot better note for what they've done this year" - departing players Marcus Bai and Mitchell Sargent in particular - there was plenty to take from the season.
"We've been through a lot of struggles this year and I think we've hopefully built a bit of a foundation for the future down in Melbourne," Bellamy said.
To that end, he had a warning for his players. "It's going to be a long pre-season," he said.
BULLDOGS 30 (N Vagana 2, C Hughes, W Mason, A Perry tries; H El Masri 4 goals, B Anasta 2 field goals) d MELBOURNE 0 at Aussie Stadium. Referee: B Harrigan. Crowd: 19,637.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/21/1064082866114.html
The promise was greater, the margin was smaller but the outcome was much the same for the Melbourne Storm yesterday when it was smashed out of the National Rugby League finals by a rampant Bulldogs for the second year in a row.
Melbourne took 12 finals rookies into last year's semi-final against Canterbury at Aussie Stadium and was dismantled 30-0. Yesterday, in the same engagement at the same venue against the same opponent, the Storm had only three finals rookies but was thumped 43-18.
But although the numbers offer no great solace for the Storm, coach Craig Bellamy insisted last night that not only was this Melbourne team markedly better than last year's, his players should take hope from an otherwise productive season.
"It's not a great way to finish, but at the end of the day, I'm not going to let one poor performance today spoil our year, because we have made improvements in our team," Bellamy said.
"It's a bit like last year, I suppose, but I take a little bit of hope. (But) as it showed today, we've still got a fair way to go. We'll turn up again in six or eight weeks' time and start over again."
For Bellamy, though, there was one uncomfortable lesson to be gleaned from the thoroughness of the Bulldogs' seven-tries-to-three victory. After watching his forwards battle gamely but mostly unsuccessfully to hold huge Bulldogs forwards Steve Price, Willie Mason, Mark O'Meley and Roy Asotasi, Bellamy was left in no doubt how significantly size matters.
"One of the areas we've got to look at with our team is trying to get a bit bigger team, because the Bulldogs were just too strong for us through the middle of the park," he said. "That's an area that we're certainly looking at, but you just can't go and get big guys and expect them to be able to play NRL. You've got to have guys that have got the ability as well."
To that end, it was with remorse that Bellamy yesterday watched two of his biggest and most experienced forwards, captain Steve Kearney and prop Rodney Howe, play their last matches for the club.
Kearney, destined for English Super League club Hull next year after six seasons in Melbourne, was an inspiration yesterday, while Howe, a foundation Storm player, charged at the defence all day before handling problems let him down.
"It's a bit of a shame to go out on this note, but certainly I thought they busted their arses today," Bellamy said.
"Certainly, Steve played a lot more minutes today than he usually does, made a couple of great linebreaks and tried to stem the tide there a couple of times by coming out of the line and smashing O'Meley and Price.
"I thought he was wonderful today for us and the score would have been a little bit uglier if he hadn't have played."
The ugliness for the Storm set in early, with the Bulldogs racing to a 16-0 lead after nine minutes. It was prettier only briefly, when Melbourne hit back from a 34-6 deficit after half-time with tries to Billy Slater and Steven Bell.
In what was billed as a battle between gun half-backs Matt Orford for Melbourne and Brent Sherwin for the Bulldogs, it was the Dog who had his day, laying on two of his side's three early tries. Most telling for Bellamy was that the tries came on the fifth tackle, when his side should have been on the alert.
"We've got a little saying when we play Canterbury about Sherwin: you've just got to expect anything off him on the fifth tackle, and we just stood back waiting for him to kick it or pass it or run it, and all of a sudden we were 16 points down," he said. "That was the disappointing thing for me today."
BULLDOGS 43 (Thurston 2, Perry, Ryan, El Masri, Tonga, L Patten tries; El Masri 7 goals; Sherwin field goal) d MELBOURNE 18 (Bell 2, Slater tries; Orford 3 goals) at Aussie Stadium. Referee: Paul Simpkins. Crowd: 23,750.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/19/1095532176498.html
2006: Melbourne Storm 16 Bulldogs 12 @ Olympic Park
A try to winger Jake Webster in the final minute of play snatched a thrilling 16-12 victory for Melbourne over the Bulldogs in their round 16 NRL match at Olympic Park this evening.
The Bulldogs had led 12-10 late in the match and seemed headed towards their 10th win of the season, but Webster's score in the shadows of full-time denied the visitors the two competition points.
Webster had also scored six minutes earlier and his two-try effort helped Melbourne open up a six-point buffer on top of the NRL ladder.
Antonio Kaufusi scored the Storm's other four-pointer while Cameron Smith added two conversions.
Sonny Bill Williams and Trent Cutler posted the Bulldogs' tries and Hazem El Masri kicked a conversion in addition to a penalty goal.
The first half was a dour but competitive affair with Williams' try in the sixth minute the only score. The Bulldogs had several other scoring chances but were unable to capitalise, leaving them 4-0 leaders at half-time.
The second period saw the match open up slightly with Kaufusi crossing six minutes after the break and Smith adding the extras to put the Storm 6-4 ahead.
The Bulldogs struck back and once again assumed the lead with Cutler scored in the 51st minute. El Masri converted and then kicked a penalty goal 12 minutes later to set up a 12-6 advantage in the way of the Bulldogs.
The visitors maintained the lead heading into the final 10 minutes but the Storm were not done with yet, and Webster's first try in the 74th minute drew the home side to within two points of the Bulldogs.
The conversion attempt was missed however, keeping the Bulldogs in front but Webster's second try six minutes later saw Melbourne move ahead again for the final and decisive time.
Smith then converted Webster's second try to close out the scoring.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2006/06/23/1670695.htm
